Hallowe'en Chaos
by Silvershadowfire
Summary: It's just another Hallowe'en party in Domino, but when magic goes crazy, can the Pharaoh and his friends find the rogue spell? Or will they be trapped in their costumed identities forever? WARNING: Yaoi pairings, non explicit.
1. Prologue and Chapter 1

Prologue

In the depths of the Domino Museum, the lights dim so as not to damage the rare artifacts carefully stored down there, one of the janitors yawned and rubbed his eyes, the sterile air thin and unsatisfying. He was almost done scrubbing the hall – damn Tatsuo for calling in sick so that he could take his kids out to a party and leaving him to do all the work. He sighed and booted up the floor buffer again, the loud whirr of the machine bouncing off the walls. He grabbed the handles but they slipped from his grasp and he let out a curse as the spinning brushes propelled it down the hall, slamming into a cupboard there. The doors opened as the machine bounced off it, spilling its contents to the floor. The janitor managed to grab the wall plug and pull it out, killing the floor buffer before it could do any more harm to anything valuable, then crouched to see what kind of damage had been done.

Most of the items, packed tightly, had survived and he put them up in their places again, but one appeared to have broken. He picked up the odd bumpy shape – a snake or dragon, he guessed – and saw that it had several slender holes in it, probably matching the one knife that had half fallen out of the hole in the head. The janitor carefully placed the stone on the floor and gathered up all the other fallen knives he could find, just simple stone things. He gathered them in a pile and picked up the stone snake again, pushing the first knife back into place. Or trying to. It didn't seem to want to move; probably jammed. With a sigh he pulled it out to adjust it.

The stone snake's eyes glowed with a sudden black energy, and it came to life in his hands. He screamed as the fangs buried themselves in his wrist, and he knew nothing more.

Chapter One

"It is a dark and stormy night..."

"If you finish that sentence I may have to spank you, Atem." Mutou Yuugi grinned as he walked beside his slightly taller lover, the reborn dark spirit and former Egyptian he had once shared his body with. It wasn't even true. Oh sure it was getting dark – like that was going to bother a spirit who had once existed in total darkness. And it was windy, but the clouds were the high skittering kind that played peekaboo with the waning moon, not rain clouds and certainly nothing that would threaten storms.

"Promise?" Atem gave Yuugi a smirk, gaze drifting over the costume his hikari, his love and the other half of his soul, had put together. It was an amazingly accurate version of the Silent Swordsman duel monster, with his 'buster' sword and long coat. Of course it should be, since Atem had summoned him for his light to compare his work to.

"Hentai." Yuugi shook his head, brushing a speck of dust off his costume, his gaze sliding over Atem's outfit. "You know, the whole idea of a Hallowe'en costume party is to dress up as something you're not." Atem wore a tunic and long shenti of linen so fine as to be nearly transparent, leaving not much of his tanned, muscular body to the imagination. The linen was banded by embroidered feathers, the motif continued on his sandals and the heavier blue cloak that he had wrapped around himself to ward off the October evening chill. He wore his usual golden crown and jewellery, with the addition of a heavy jewelled and enamelled pectoral in the form of a hawk. "You know if you fell in the water you'd sink like a stone. How can you wear all of that?"

"Practise, aibou. Lots and lots of practise, and good upper body strength. We didn't have weightlifting in my day, so we wore fifty stone of jewellery instead."

Yuugi snickered at the mental image of Atem doing morning exercises with all his jewellery on. "Do you learn to swim with them on too?"

"No, you learn to take them off in a hurry... or just don't fall overboard. Or you could take a third option and just stay off boats. Shadi never did like sailing."

Yuugi's smile turned fond. He liked it when Atem brought up things from the past. It was like finding little crumbs of gold, making a trail through the darkness of his yami's shadowed past. Even now he didn't remember everything, but it came back in bits and drabs. "Okay, I give. I know that's an Egyptian outfit, but what's it from? It's not your usual 'King of Upper and Lower Khemet' ensemble."

"Tch, you make it sound like all of what I wear is merely for fashion, aibou." Atem sniffed in mock indignation. "I'll have you know that this is all highly ceremonial and symbolic."

"So there's a reason your clothing's so thin you wouldn't need an x-ray machine in an airport?"

"Of course." Atem grinned suddenly. "It symbolizes that I'm rich."

Yuugi laughed aloud at that, startling a couple passing trick or treaters. "And here I thought that's what all the gold was for." He waved his hand with a grin of his own, taking in all the jewellery.

"Oh no. There's actually very good reason for all of this." Atem touched the crown half on, half in his hair. "The eye is for Ra, all seeing and all knowing, and also symbolic of Wadjet the Serpent – Goddess of Lower Khemet and protector of the pharaoh." He touched the flaring wings. "And these are for Nekhbet the Vulture, Goddess of Upper Egypt, who protects the holy names and the divine soul of the eternal Pharaoh. Together, they represent all of ancient Khemet under the protection of the Ra."

"...wow. That's a lot to put in one crown. I thought the Double Crown was that long slender red and white one you see on all the walls."

"Oh it is." Atem agreed. "And I wore that one too, but not too often. It was a little hard to get on over my hair, so I only wore it after I had shaved my head for one reason or another." He waved to the chest pectoral. "This one is also protective – a lot of my jewellery had symbols of protection, authority or both worked into it. This is for Horus, of course, the falcon god whose soul we share."

Which was something Yuugi was still getting used to. Atem repeatedly assured him that according to his people, because they shared one soul Yuugi had every right to everything that Atem claimed as king and pharaoh. Which, granted, wasn't much in the King department unless you counted King of Games, but then Atem didn't claim that title anymore either – he said that Yuugi had won that in their final duel, and so that title was his alone. Which made no sense. If they shared everything then shouldn't Atem share his titles and stuff too? Then again, Yuugi really wasn't that into titles and such anyway. It was Kaiba who kept insisting that he wanted it. With a mental shake of his head he pushed that aside, adding it to the mental pile of 'weird Egyptian stuff' with his beloved yami's name on it and brushed his fingers over the feather motifs on the cloak. "Are these for protection too?"

"Ah no... I couldn't find enough feathers to make a proper cloak, though, so I had to improvise. Those are ostrich feathers, aibou."

"Oh!" That myth he knew. "For Ma'at, Goddess of Truth. So you're going as a priest of Ma'at?"

"Defender of Ma'at." Atem nodded. "One of my many, many titles. By rights it should be a full cloak of feathers, but like I said, I had to improvise. Still, in Egyptian magic, the symbol is the thing, so they're just as good."

"It still defeats the purpose of a costume party." Yuugi shook his head wryly. :I love you anyway.: he added through the link that bound their minds and souls as they came to the gate that guarded the Kaiba's lush and sprawling mansion home.

The driveway led up to the mansion, a long avenue where stately trees marched on either side, and manicured gardens spread out into the evening on either side. Most of the trees were evergreen – Yuugi could well imagine how it would be in winter, with snow covering everything. And maybe this year they would gave a Christmas party too as well as a Hallowe'en one. Or at least something for New Years'.

Atem winced back at the sound that washed over them when the door opened. There were a LOT of people here, a testament more to Jounouchi than to his rich lover. After all, the blonde Duellist was the personable one. Kaiba Seto, not so much. He paused a moment to let eyes and ears adjust; he didn't really like being around so many people himself. Yuugi was the one in their pairing who thrived in this kind of environment, and he bloomed like a bright sunflower as he padded inside and waved to the greetings that met him. So bright, his little light. Not so little anymore, either; time had finally started to give him the mature body of a man, and though he would never be tall, he had grown slender and strong. Atem shook back his cloak as the warmth of the room hit him, following after Yuugi to where their friends had gathered.

It seemed they had all put a lot of effort into their costumes. Otogi was surprisingly elegant in the pointed ears and gauzy wings of one of the faerie folk, and Honda of course had dressed as a soldier; from the way they leaned against each other, they had finally decided to make it official. Which was nice. He almost didn't recognize Ryou at first; the pale hikari of the thief Bakura was dressed in white leather that was tight enough to be a second skin, sleeveless with cutouts that played peek-a-boo with his skin. Which was currently a rather becoming shade of pink under the white hair and plastic ivory horns.

"What on earth... how much did Bakura have to bribe you to get into that, Ryou-kun?" Yuugi laughed.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Bakura himself wrapped an arm around Ryou's waist and smirked from over his shoulder. He was in black shenti and red desert cloak with a black pendant around his neck, normally silver-blue eyes bright red and manic. But this was a day of the dead, and one only had to look at Bakura's deck to know where his power lay. "He's mine for the night, though. My little sexy fallen angel."

"Yami..." Ryou blushed again, then lightly slapped the wandering hand playing over the stomach exposed by his short vest. "Stop that. Not in public."

The thief just smirked and kissed the side of his neck as Jou came up to join them.

The blonde's hair stuck out from under his helm, pushed back so that the mask didn't quite cover his face, but otherwise his costume of Gilford the Lightning was very accurate. Right down to the _very_ nice six pack it showed off below the short breastplate. He grinned at their costumes. "Hey guys! How long ya been here?"

"Not too long." Yuugi grinned back and looked him up and down. "Damn, Jou-kun, how did you get Seto-kun to let you out of the bedroom in that?"

The blonde snickered. "'Cause the other option was Dragonmaster Knight an' he wasn't too keen on the leash."

A growl behind them announced the blonde's lover and the host of the party, dressed in a helm, wings and shiny silver clawed gloves, the blue eyes he shared with his favorite dragon glaring at all and sundry. Considering the rest of the costume consisted of a short silver-scaled breastplate, Roman style armored leather kilt with tail and knee high clawed boots, it was obvious who had designed the brunet's 'sexy' Blue Eyes costume. Atem smirked as he looked the tall brunet over; he loved his hikari to pieces but damn... those mile long legs and that tight ass under the swaying tail... yum. The CEO was not hard on the eyes. Frankly, none of them were.

"Keep your eyes in your head, Atem." Seto scowled at him as he moved to Jou's side.

"Grumpy dragon." the former Pharaoh teased. "Did Jou not give you a snack before he let you out of your kennel?" The fact that he flicked his eyes to the ragged orange-red skirt that Jou wore made his meaning clear.

Seto scowled more, Jou busted up laughing along with Honda and Yuugi, and Ryou turned a fascinating shade of pink. "Nah, he don't get his snack unless he's a good dragon." Jou snickered, reaching back to twine his fingers with the clawed glove, the golden eyes bright with love. Jou might tease him and get a rise out of him, but considering how they had gotten together in the first place, that might be considered a form of foreplay.

"This dragon's going to bite you in two." Seto growled softly, but his arm around Jou's waist was possessive. Dragon indeed.

"Promises promises." Bakura smirked. "Do we get to watch?"

"Yami!" Ryou chided, as another round of laughter circled the group.

"You people are having too much fun over here." That was Mokuba, come to join them. He was dressed in ordinary enough clothing, but attached to his head was a bright green hexagonal bipyramid.

"Too much fer a kid yer age." Jou grinned.

"Sure, right. I'm old enough now." Mokuba adjusted his 'floating' icon.

"No you're not." Seto disagreed with another growl.

"You're biased, Niisama. As far as you're concerned I won't be old enough until I'm 25."

"Hnnn... that sounds about right." He poked the green shape with a clawed finger. "Go get me a drink, Mokuba-sim."

Mokuba stuck out his tongue. "Anyone else want anything while I'm daring the buffet table? You haven't had anything yet, right?" That last was to Atem and Yuugi.

"No, but that's okay. We can manage to get our own." Yuugi smiled and took Atem's hand, towing him through the crowd. The pharaoh managed to garner more than a few looks himself, but unlike Ryou's blushes or Seto's growl he lifted his chin, grinning saucily at the looks. He was certainly not ashamed of his body, even if Yuugi was the only one now who would ever enjoy its charms.

"Will you stop flirting with everything in the room?"

"Why?" Atem reached over and tapped his light's helmet, then tucked a long fingered hand under his chin, tilting up his head so that he could look into the elaborately made up crimson eyes. :You know that you have nothing to worry about, my bright love. They can look, but the only one who will touch is you.:

:Yeah... I know.: Yuugi smiled up at him, and then leaned over to kiss his slightly taller lover.

Atem closed his eyes into it, enjoying the softness of Yuugi's lips, and then suddenly the world shifted sideways under his feet. He stumbled back, eyes flying open, as the floor shifted wildly. No one else seemed to notice; no one seemed to notice the sickly green light that crashed through the air, engulfing everyone in the room and even the room itself. Atem pulled his cloak close automatically, feeling his skin crawl with the touch of twisted magic that sickened him. The feathers embroidered on his shenti and cloak flared with golden power as he felt the divine touch of the Goddess within him, leaving him breathless.

It passed in mere moments, leaving him panting and staring at his light as a confused babbling rose around the room. "Aibou? Are you all right?" But what came out of his mouth wasn't Japanese. It took an effort of will to switch languages.

Yuugi looked up at him, and to Atem's surprise his eyes were no longer amethyst but blue, though his features were the same. He nodded, once, then dropped to one knee, bending over his blade in the salute of a warrior to his lord.

He could have hit him with the buster sword and given Atem less of a shock. He touched his hikari's mind, only to find nothing. Only the shimmering of his light and a strange blankness, along with the crawling touch of the green light. He pulled back, staring down at Yuugi in blank astonishment. Then he looked around the room when the sound of a dragon's confused roar shook dust from the roof. He could see a fully formed (but not full sized, thank all the gods) Blue Eyes White Dragon next to an equally confused looking Gilford. Otogi hovered not far away, wings fluttering as he looked around, while Honda had his gun out.. and it didn't look plastic. What in the name of the thousand gods was happening here?

"Pharaoh?" Bakura made his way through the crowd, with Ryou hanging off his arm. Only Ryou too was transformed, a saucy smile on his lips as he draped his arms around Bakura's shoulders and nuzzled into his throat. "Not... Ryou, for fuck's sake, will you wake up? Pharaoh, what the fucking _hell_ is going on here?"

"I don't know." Atem looked around again, frowning, and saw Honda taking aim at a group of moaning zombies on the far side of the room. "But I think we'd better get everyone out of here before something permanent happens. Swords of revealing light!" he cast, to stop any fights before they broke out.

And absolutely nothing happened. He blinked blankly at his hands, reached for the shadows, and felt the blood drain from his face as he felt nothing, only the soft pulse of the Goddess' powers. "Oh shit."

"Fucking bloody hellfires." Bakura growled in agreement, holding out his hands.

"You too?" Atem asked, looking down as Yuugi took a defensive stand next to him. "Aibou! You need to stop Honda from opening fire!" He pointed to the brunet and Yuugi nodded once, then to his astonishment jumped cleanly over the milling crowd, sword blurring over his head. "Oh gods! Don't kill him!"

The swordsman dropped in front of Honda, his oversized blade cracking into the floor and sending it up shards of wood and carpeting just as the gun opened fire. Bullets deflected off the ceiling and floor as Yuugi took a defensive stance and shivered, growing six inches.

"Fuck me, looks like they have all their... Ryou, gods damn it!... abilities."

Atem glanced over as Bakura bit back a moan – Ryou had gotten his teeth on his throat and evidently that was a pleasure spot, because the thief's eyes were glazing over, his fingers curled in the pale hair of his light. Shit. Okay he needed to figure this out... please gods let his Egyptian magic be working. He reached over and traced the symbol for sleep on Ryou's shoulder, backing it up with a sharp word in Egyptian. The pale hikari hissed but drooped, going limp.

Bakura caught him, breathing hard. "Fucking... all right Pharaoh, do you have a plan?"

"Not fucking for starters." Atem snarked. "I'm working on it. We need to get the dangerous ones away from the others..." He looked at the pendant around Bakura's neck. "You need to lay those zombies before they start eating anyone. Put them to sleep until morning."

"My shadow powers aren't fucking working! What do you want me to do, sing them a fucking lullaby?"

"Priest of Anubis! That gives you power over the restless dead! If they all have the proper abilities, so do you!" Atem snarled and shoved him in that direction. Heroes were squaring off against villains – someone dressed as a samurai looked about ready to take someone's head off and there were voices rising as the air rose with tension and potential violence.

Please gods let this work. Atem closed his eyes and traced a symbol on the floor at his feet, chanting a spell to calm hostile magics, invoking Bes as well as Ma'at. He stood and spread his arms, throwing his cloak back, and felt the magic waft from him like the scent of incense through the air.

It wasn't enough to undo whatever spell had transformed the people here, but it was enough that the tension eased.

"Shadowlord?"

Atem looked over, then looked up. "Jou... er.. Gilford. We need the zombies and that werewolf over there in separate rooms."

"As you command." The massive swordsman moved back through the crowd; someone in armor with chains clearly had the same idea, because he was dragging a vampire off a lady dressed in a fancy kimono. In fact now that he had calmed the tensions the 'heroes' were moving to head off problems. Thank the gods that it hadn't been an all monster party. He watched as the Blue Eyes started working with Gilford, herding monsters into separate rooms.

"I don't know what you're thinking; those zombies need to die before they spread the virus to others." Honda gave Atem a suspicious look.

"They're not really zombies – they're people under a curse." Atem told him firmly. "I don't suppose you have any tranquilizers for your gun?"

"I'm a policeman, not animal control." Honda kept the gun out, looking around professionally. "Of course I don't know what I'm doing here, either."

"We all came here to a party..." He saw the blank look and sighed. "Never mind. Can you and Otogi help get the dangerous monsters sealed away until morning? Hopefully if I can't find out what's causing this Ra's light will burn away the magic."

"I'll do what I can..." He looked at the faerie beside him. "Are you Otogi?"

He opened his mouth, but all that came out was a tinkling sound, like bells. A moue of frustration curled his lips.

"Huh. I'll take that as a yes."

"Otogi? Do you remember who you are?" Atem asked.

The fae gave him a curious look, then nodded and waved his wand, fluttering over to a ghost and shaking silver dust on it. It vanished.

That... probably wasn't good. Atem prayed that he had just banished it to its home, in which case whoever had been in the costume should be just haunting their own house. That made him pale, and he darted to the door to look outside. The grounds were mostly quiet, but off in the distance, in the direction of Domino, he could hear sirens and feel the crawling green energy. The source of this spell was in the city. So that was where he would have to go and shut it down, somehow.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Normally, an outing like this would be a time for Yuugi to be chatting with his friends while Atem and Bakura either snarked at or ignored each other, depending on their mood. This was anything but normal. Honda sat in the front seat, driving easily toward town, though careful to avoid the roaming people. Zombies seemed to be popular this year, Atem noted absently.

Normally he would have insisted on driving, but to his surprise when he went to try to make the van go and found himself looking for the stables, he couldn't remember how. It wasn't until Seto had dropped the keys at his feet and made an angry, frustrated thump of his tail that he remembered that they were to make the van operate. He'd tossed them to Honda, simply because at least he could remember what modern things were for. He and Bakura kept slipping into Egyptian when they weren't thinking about it. Otogi had stayed behind to help out at the mansion, and a red-headed swordsman that he vaguely remembered from one of Aibou's anime had assured him in archaic Japanese that things would be taken care of there if he wanted to go investigate.

He didn't have much choice, so he had taken the van to go into town. Jou and Yuugi had followed without asking, as had Seto – the white dragon seemed of everyone to have his mind, even if he couldn't communicate in that form. He'd considered it for a time, then brought Mokuba along. The teen had a mildly happy look on his face, his green shape spinning nicely over his head and he did what he was told, though when he spoke it was gibberish. Sims was a modern game – if they needed him to do something that Honda couldn't, he should be able to. Seto had not been happy, either, but since he hadn't stopped him, had probably come to the same logic that Atem himself had.

Bakura and Ryou had come along too. And while Yuugi's silence and his guarded attitude couldn't be more different from his brightly shining light, he felt more sorry for the thief. Ryou was curled on his lap, doing his level best to get him out of his shenti, and he must have the worse case of blue balls _ever_.

"How much further do we have to go?" Bakura growled, his tanned skin flushed as Ryou slid a hand under his desert coat and did something that made him bite back an audible groan. "Gods damn it Ry..."

"We won't need long." Ryou's voice had deepened to a husky whisper as he nuzzled into the thief's throat again. "Let me pleasure you..."

"Not too much further. I don't think you have time to take the edge off." And it might be a bad idea, anyway. Atem wasn't too familiar with foreign mythology, but he knew a spirit leech when he sensed one. Besides if Ryou remembered this after the spell was lifted and he regained his senses, he'd be mortified. He probably would be anyway, but embarrassment wasn't going to kill him. Guilt would be worse.

"Nnngh..." Bakura managed to get his hikari off his lap, only to gasp and thump his head on the side of the van as the transformed man pulled up his shenti and buried his face between the thief's legs.

"Geeze, get a room." Honda commented.

Atem scowled faintly and managed to get to his feet, getting past his own hikari's protective stance to pull Ryou off forcibly, and nearly tripped as Seto planted himself in the narrow path between seats. "Blue eyes... Seto, get out of my way."

The dragon roared at him and thumped his tail.

"I told you, I don't have my shadow powers right now, I can't understand you."

The dragon growled in clear frustration, then pressed his heavy scaled body against Atem and pushed him back. Even small, Seto's dragon form was easily seven feet long and the muscles under the shining surface made it comparable to being shoved around by a team of horses.

"But Ryou will drain his life force." And it bothered him to allow such a being as Ryou had become to prey on a human... even Bakura.

Seto's blue gaze hadn't changed with his transformation – he could manage to look down his nose at Atem even though he didn't have a nose anymore, and raised both wings in an impassable barrier until they all heard the cry of the thief as he released. Only then did Seto back off, letting Atem past.

"If he's injured... I don't have a lot of allies." the pharaoh scolded, but was surprised to see Bakura sated, energies still high and clearly still very much himself – as much as he was after the spell anyway – with Ryou curled up beside him, snuggled into his side. "...huh?"

Bakura opened one eye. "The link's still there, baka pharaoh. My energy, his energy... doesn't matter. And it's a night of the dead... priest or shadow mage, tonight even the quiet dead give me power."

"Then why didn't you want to do this earlier?"

"Because we've got this fucking whatever the fuck is going on to fix, and to properly enjoy my hikari's... assets... takes time and privacy." He smirked, red eyes bright. "At least the former. And time we don't have, if you don't want more fucking wandering souls tramping around and messing up the place. I don't care, but Ryou would if he were himself."

"Oh." Atem rubbed his forehead with a frown. He should have thought of that... then he looked down at Seto. "And you knew?"

The dragon snorted and curled back up, head on his long tail. Jou reached over and stroked the hard scales; the pharaoh took that as a good sign. There was still something of Jou in there. . . and maybe the others as well. After all, Ryou had focused on his yami, and his own light was guarding him. Odd as that still seemed.

"It's getting pretty thick here." Honda told Atem. "Unless we want to run people over, I think we're going to have to walk from here."

"Are there a lot of dangers?" he asked, looking back out through the window. People milled around – heroes and monsters both. Duel Monsters were very popular, which wasn't entirely a bad thing. It was clear from the way Yuugi and Jounouchi reacted to him that even with his shadow magic on the fritz the monsters still recognized him as the 'Shadowlord', Pharaoh of the shadow realm. So he should be able to command at least some of them.

The feel of the air was giving him a headache, though, and there was a pulsing to the night that made his skin crawl. The problem was that it wasn't focused energy – it was everywhere. The night winds screamed of chaos. How was he supposed to find the source? "Pull over and I'll try to figure out where we need to go."

Honda did as he was told, checking his gun before getting out and climbing up on the roof. "Do your thing, I'll keep an eye out. You expecting anyone to really stop us or just random attacks?"

"I don't know anything yet, really." Atem replied, absently stroking Yuugi's shoulder and wishing that he could touch his mind. The feel of his Light would settle the headache and let him think, though it wasn't dangerous right now for him to be 'disconnected', since he couldn't touch the shadows either.

"You're a priest, can't you do any of that priest shit to divine where we need to go?"

"Sorry Bakura... I didn't dress up as Isis." Atem crossed his arms and gave him an irritated glare. "Priests of Ma'at were defenders of truth... keepers of the... hmm." He frowned faintly, then padded past them out the back doors of the van, dropping down to the asphalt with Yuugi on his heels. He couldn't directly divine, but he was the Defender of Ma'at. The goddess should show him where he needed to be, if he asked correctly. The words came surprisingly quickly to his mind, as though he had just read them from the Scrolls of Invocation in the temple. But before he spoke an idea came and he turned, gesturing to the others. "Everyone come here and gather around me."

"Of course, Shadowlord." Jou heaved himself from the van – it creaked as the struts released the heavy load of the blonde warrior and the Blue Eyes. Seto looked unhappy, wings flattened and tail dragging, but then he'd looked unhappy since he was transformed. Bakura came out next, with Ryou. Two pairs of red eyes watched him curiously as Honda dropped down from the roof of the van to complete the circle.

"Let's hope this works." Atem closed his eyes and spread his arms, cloak falling back as he formed the signs of blessing, sliding into the ancient tongue of his homeland.

"_For I am Atem, the Son of Ra_

_I walk with Wadjet at My right hand_

_And Nekhbet upon My left._

_Behold!_

_Divine Ma'at has set Her Truth_

_Within My heart._

_I wield Her feather in My right hand_

_To brush away all that is chaos."_

Atem's eyes opened as he completed the invocation, golden light in the shape of feathers spreading around him as the power of the Goddess filled him. The crackling green-black light of the chaos around them sparked against the gold, angry violent energies that tried to deny him their source and Atem felt the wadjet eye burning to life under his crown. "Thoth, Lord of Wisdom, has shown Me what He sees," the pharaoh intoned and closed his material eyes again, his body shaking with the divine power flowing through it. "Nothing is hidden from Him."

He couldn't move as he felt the chaos magic flare, summoning those it had created to defend it. For a moment he tried to break free, but the powers he had invoked had him now. Utterly helpless, he could only fall deeper into the divine trance and pray that the others could guard him.

Atem came back to himself sometime later in the van, feeling the rough carpet of the flooring under his back and a callused hand tapping his cheeks hard enough to sting. "Come on Pharaoh, wake the fuck up."

Crimson blinked open and he moaned slightly – his head throbbed and his body ached with pins and needles all over. "Bakura?" he managed, feeling vague and disconnected from his body.

"Yeah it's me. Will you fucking give some warning the next time you invoke the fucking power underpinning the Gods-be-damned universe? We just about were swarmed. I fucking hope it was worth it."

"The museum." Thank the gods it was Bakura – he was still too unfocused to speak Japanese. He wondered absently if the duel monsters spoke Egyptian... they had been based on the old records after all.

"Oi, focus." Bakura snapped his fingers under his nose. "Stay with me, Pharaoh. What's at the museum?"

"Avatar of Apep, the Serpent of Demons, Lord of Chaos." He made a sign of warding as he spoke the demon god's name. "Somehow an icon was unpinned and someone is opening a portal to the Duat."

"Joy." Unexpectedly, Bakura also made the sign of warding against chaos, then scowled slightly at the hand as though it had moved on its own. "If we get you there, can you beat him?"

"I have walked the paths of the dead and know the spells of protection and the rite of destruction." Atem agreed, closing his eyes again. Damn but he was tired. He'd only done the rites in his lifetime, not actually summoned and channelled the power of the gods. Now he knew why Seth always fasted and did rites to strengthen himself first.

"Peachy for you." Bakura's voice called him back to the present. "Quit wandering off on me, Pharaoh. I know you're fucking tired, but I am not carrying you and your fucking jewellery to the museum."

"Ugh." He managed to push himself upright with the help of the thief, whose aid was less harsh than his words would suggest. "Where are the others?"

"Outside, keeping the horde back. Apparently all the people who were transformed are being called out to defend this Avatar against us."

"What about the people who weren't transformed? I don't think the entire city dressed up."

"Yeah the cops are out there too, and the firemen – looks like most of the civilians have fled or are barring themselves in their houses. The fucking cops aren't too likely to know the difference between us and the crazies, though. On your feet, Pharaoh."

He didn't have to say what would happen if they didn't stop the Avatar from opening the doors to the River of Chaos in the underworld; he may not even have known. But Atem did – Thoth had shown him a vision of the dark serpent attacking the Sun Barge. And there were no priests now of Ra to sing the chants and make the offerings to strengthen the Sun God. If the portal was opened, they may have to go into the Duat itself and fight off the chaos serpent until Ra's newborn might could banish him. And that, frankly, would probably get them all killed. He'd already sacrificed his life once to stop a dark god, and he really didn't want a repeat performance.

Bakura grimaced again as he steadied him and helped him out of the van, then growled. "You'd better fucking bless us. This chaos spell might turn the others against us without it; it's certainly done a fucking number on everyone else."

Despite the situation, Atem gave the thief an amused, if tired, smile. "You, asking for a blessing? Now I know the world's ending." He brushed a hand over Yuugi as his armed light attached himself to him, the one visible blue eye looking up in clear concern. "I'm okay." he added to the small swordsman.

Yuugi gave him a smile and took his place to Atem's right, on the far side from Bakura. Evidently shadow monsters could indeed understand Egyptian.

"Yeah yeah, I don't need it for myself, idiot. Apparently Anubis is strong enough to keep the chaos from me." He grimaced. "I am going to kick that snake between the eyes for this. I don't want to depend on fucking gods."

Atem studied him, wondering where he had gotten the amulet then – because that was no modern reproduction. Still, probably not the best time to ask. They did have more important matters to attend to. "You might have to translate for me, I think channelling Ma'at knocked all the Japanese out of my head."

"Great." Bakura scowled as though Atem had done it just to personally offend him. "Do you know where the fucking museum is at least?"

"I can feel it; it's the heart of the chaos." Kind of like walking into a blizzard, but he could do it.

Outside, the others were gathered around a barrier – he recognized the power as that of the Jackal God and gave a nod. Bakura was more the priest right now than he wanted to admit. The golden feathers of Ma'at lingered in the air, helping to keep back those who had been changed by Apep's power. Atem took a deep breath and spoke a simple blessing over each of the others to keep that chaos from further affecting their minds, then looked at Bakura. "Okay, let's go."


	3. Chapter 3 and Epilogue

Chapter 3

"Where's Mokuba?" Atem suddenly realized that there weren't enough people around him and looked around as they made their way through the streets, with Jou and Yuugi on either flank to hold back the cursed and Seto as a large, grumpy battering ram to make sure that their path was clear, and Honda bringing up the rear to keep anyone from attacking from that side.

"Back in the van." Bakura told him. "Dragon Dick there sat on him until that green thing over his head went red and after that he refused to move or speak or do anything except sulk."

Atem looked over at the dragon thumping his tail and growling. Trust Seto to change his mind and decide he didn't want Mokuba in danger. "We're going to need him if the museum is locked up."

"Don't be stupid, Pharaoh. I'll get us in."

"Well yes, I have no doubt that the greatest thief in the history of the Two Lands could do that... but right now, you're not him. You're a priest of Anubis, not a tomb robber or thief."

The other Egyptian's eyes widened. "Fuck. You mean I won't be able to break in."

"Any more than I can remember how to drive. This is a nasty curse; it's limiting us to exactly our roles and nothing more."

"Just fucking peachy," the other's garnet eyes flickered, turning inward as he draped an arm around Ryou's waist. "Let me think about it."

Atem nodded and settled back to walking, letting magical senses roam so that they might have some kind of warning if this avatar decided to try another tack. The ghosts and zombies were dangerous enough; if someone else had dressed as a dragon or the like, they would be in trouble. As Seto had proved, even human sized dragons were nothing to be sneered at.

After that they had no time to think. The number of cursed seemed legion and they didn't dare actually kill them, since they were innocent humans, adults and children both who had been transformed into Apep's pawns. Atem chanted prayers to Ma'at as they fought, keeping the chaos from weakening them and calling on the goddess to strengthen them. The two block walk to the museum seemed to take hours. Beside him Bakura was chanting his own prayers, the undead dropping and transforming back to humans as he removed the curse from them. It was just too bad that he couldn't do anything about the ones that weren't undead...

They weren't alone, though. Atem managed to turn some of the cursed who had dressed as Duel Monsters, using his position as the Shadow Pharaoh and Ma'at's magic to turn them so they fought with the group instead of against them. Still, it was a nasty, nasty fight until they got to the stone stairs that led up to the faux Greek front of the museum's entrance.

The museum was brightly lit from the outside, and appeared to be completely normal except for the monsters around it. To Atem's magical senses though, the building pulsed with Apep's venom. Chaos magic crawled along the ground and crackled through the air like invisible lightning. His head pulsed softly, skin crawling until he murmured a prayer of protection. Apparently the curse had also thrown his magical sensitivity into overdrive. "It looks pretty solidly locked up," he called to Bakura, rubbing his temples under his crown. He was going to have to husband his magic until he got to the icon at this rate. He couldn't afford to pass out when the Goddess rode him to cast Apep back into the depths.

"Yeah." The thief hummed as he looked around; the numbers of cursed had thinned, giving them a breathing space. He growled and thumped his forehead. "I should be able to break into it without even thinking but I can't fucking remember how I did it before. Damn fucking spell..."

"Well, we could always just get Seto to break down the front door."

"Subtle." Bakura snarked.

"I don't see you coming up with a better idea."

Ryou spoke in musical – sounding Japanese, from the tone a question. Atem growled to himself – he really, really hated that he couldn't speak or understand the language anymore.

Bakura grunted a reply, and they had a short conversation before he then turned to Atem. "My hikari says that he can get inside the building and unlock the door for us."

"He can?" Atem glanced at the transformed hikari, who gave him a sultry smile and a wink that made his body stir despite his fatigue.

"Apparently. I'll take his word for it."

"I'm surprised he understood us," the pharaoh commented, looking away to break the spell. Since when did fallen angels understand ancient Egyptian?

"He didn't... he just wanted to know what we were fighting about." Bakura smirked and nuzzled his hikari. "Clever brat, even when he doesn't have his own brains."

Ryou smiled and gave Bakura a toe-curling kiss, probably draining his power again. Atem growled at the sight – Ryou wasn't far from chaos himself at the moment. "Well, let's get going. We haven't got all night."

Bakura broke the kiss slowly and nodded to Ryou with a smirk, who produced a whip out of nowhere – literally – and darted up the stairs. Atem wondered if that meant that they were 'falling' further into their assumed personae the longer the spell was in effect, since now apparently he could do things he couldn't before. He wouldn't lose too much more of his knowledge and skill. After all, technically speaking the Defender of Ma'at didn't need any of that to do his job, even if it was one of the Pharaoh's titles.

Ugh. He was going to end up giving himself a worse headache. Better just to get this over with.

Yuugi, Honda, Jou and the co-opted Duel Monsters formed a makeshift living wall against the few cursed that where left, keeping them back. As Atem watched, the hikari slid through the door and vanished.

As though the fallen angel's entrance had triggered them the air surged with a pulse of raw chaos magic, disgorging creatures from the depths of nightmare. Their shapes shifted, flowing, never stable, and the eye slid over them in sheer self protection, the human mind not designed to process such things. Atem's eyes narrowed as the Eye burned under his crown – these weren't transformed humans. He could feel it, feel the chaos they were born from; creatures that betrayed Ma'at by their very existence. "He's summoned true chaos demons. Silent Swordsman, strike them down!" The last was delivered in tones of command, his hand clasping a large glowing gold sword that he pulled out of the air as he snarled at the creatures in utter loathing. "Begone, foul demons! Begone from this world! Gilford, use your power! Send them back to the Duat!"

Yuugi darted forward, sword swinging overhead. Atem spoke a word of command and threw the blade in his own hand; it melted into the buster sword, lending its glow to both weapon and wielder. The demons screamed as they clawed and scratched, Yuugi growing larger with each one defeated. Jou swayed his sword over his head and Atem shivered and raised his hands as lightning crashed down to the blade. "I give thee thanks mighty Set, master of storms, defender of Ra, whose spear strikes down Apep!" The electrical blast crashed over the demons, a blinding blow that left a whole swath of them ash. The crack of Honda's pistol sounded loud in the night and Atem added a spell to that too, giving it the blessing of Ma'at to combat the demons.

However, Atem could call down another strike of divine power, a heavy sweep took his feet out from under him. He yelped as he found himself on his back with Seto staring at him. "What? There are demons to be defeated, don't interfere."

The dragon roared at him, tail thumping, then pointed a claw at the building that Bakura and Ryou had managed to get open.

"The dragon's right, Pharaoh. He'll just keep fucking summoning more demons if we don't stop his fucking ass, and you're the only one who knows the fucking rites. The doors will keep them out. Now get off your ass and get in here."

"But..." He yelped as Seto grabbed his cloak and bodily dragged him through the door. "Put me down you overgrown lizard!" But he had other problems the moment he was pulled over the threshold; the chaos magic here was so thick he wanted to be sick. "Gods... holy Ma'at protect us..."

"Damnit, don't lose yourself to the damned magic, Pharaoh." Bakura and Ryou got the doors closed with a solid thump that cut off the sounds of fighting outside. "Jounouchi, Honda and the runt can keep them off our asses. Where are we going?"

"I don't... gods, it's so thick..." Atem choked on the air. Disgusting... He wanted out of this building more than he had wanted out of the endless darkness of the Puzzle. Seto still had hold of his cloak, though, so he wasn't going anywhere.

"Don't fucking lose it now, Pharaoh." Bakura stepped in front of him. "Suck it up; the damned buildings too large to just search. Where is he?"

Ugh... Atem closed his eyes – it was like trying to see through thick sewage to find the drain it was bubbling through. "The goddess has cleared the way." he intoned. "She sees through to the core of evil and brushes it aside." The eye under his crown burned brighter, showing him the physical place where the chaos poured through. "Downstairs... the basement..."

"It's a start." Bakura gave him a mocking smirk. "Can you walk? Or do I need to have Seto carry you like a baby kitten?"

"Of course I can walk." Atem snarled back and pushed himself to his feet. He wasn't going to be shown up by Bakura of all people. "Seto, let go!"

The dragon did so, his wings mantling and tail flicking. He seemed rather amused and Atem gave him a sour glare that bounced right off the silvery scales. "Come on, then." He pulled his cloak around himself against the thick magic in the air and followed Bakura and Ryou over the darkened marble floors, heading for the back 'employees only' entrance that led to the basement. Clearly Bakura had been here before, and likely so had Ryou, considering his father was an archaeologist. Atem had once, but not down in the basement area, just the 'special' back area where Ishizu had stored the great stone plaques taken from his tomb.

"Fuck." Bakura stopped at the bottom of the stairs, looking back and forth. "I can't remember where to go from here." He looked at Ryou and repeated himself – probably – in Japanese. Ryou shrugged his shoulders, curling his whip around his feet.

Seto shouldered past all of them with an annoyed thump of his tail and landed on the floor, turning left. Clearly he knew where he was going; he lead them straight to a metal barred door marked in Japanese and thumped it pointedly with his tail.

Bakura tried it. "Locked. Fuck." He turned to Ryou, probably to ask him to go through it and unlock it from the other side, but Seto gave an annoyed growl and filled his lungs. The ball of white lighting took the metal door right off at the hinges and sent it tumbling down the stairs behind it.

"Oh that's good, why don't you just fucking ring an alarm bell while you're here?" Bakura snarled at the dragon, who in true Seto fashion completely ignored him. "Blood fucking dragon, about as subtle as a fucking klaxon..."

"Nevermind, let's just go." Atem managed, pulling his cloak tighter. The feathers embroidered on his clothing were glowing faintly, doing their best to protect him from the chaos around them. "Before he summons demons in here."

Seto hadn't waited, trundling down stairs that creaked alarmingly under his weight. The lights were off, but a weird black-green light highlighted the corners and edges of the walls, foxing their depth perception. The hall at the end of the stairs seemed to stretch on for an eternity, a black pit leading into nothingness.

Atem pressed his hand against the icy cold stone wall, other arm over his eyes as he forced himself forward. He was blind here, blind and sick, his protections all that stood between him and madness as he followed Seto into the mouth of the serpent. He stumbled and nearly fell as another surge of magic washed over the floor, a black river that threatened to drown him.

"You aren't fucking giving up now, Pharaoh." He felt Bakura's arm behind him, half supporting and half pushing. "Come on, use that brain of yours. What are we going to find in there?"

"I don't..." He swallowed the words, goaded by the thief's courage. "An icon... and the avatar. Kill the avatar... may be demons. I'll need time... to work the ritual..."

"Fine. I'll kill the avatar. Seto, you and Ryou make sure that the Pharaoh isn't interrupted while he does his shit."

The dragon's tail thumped, but his roar sounded like agreement. Atem leaned on the thief, pulling together his determination and pushing himself forward. He was not going to let his abomination remain!

They found another door, this one so wrought about with chaos magic that it practically glowed with it. Seto, reflecting an eerie green-silver in the half light braced himself and and spat out a ball of lightning. It absorbed into the portal and Seto let out a roar, wings spreading.

"Let me." Bakura told the dragon, letting Atem go. The shorter yami leaned on the wall, watching through the flickering rainbow light of the Eye of Wadjet as Bakura fearlessly put a hand on the blackness and snarled. "Let none bar the way to Anubis' prey. I come to claim the dead."

The door pulsed, red-black clean darkness pushing aside the chaos power as Bakura called on the jackal god. It was something of a relief and Atem pushed himself off the wall as Seto let out another blast of lightning. This time it worked, cracking the door and opening the way. Chaos demons surged out, writhing masses of tentacles and formless nothingness. Seto reared up on his back legs and roared a challenge, then grabbed the lead demon in sharp teeth and threw it back into its fellows, watching them merge and flow together. Ryou's whip cracked, pulling a writhing limb closer, and wrapped it around his wrist. He laughed as the creature's energy started to flow into him.

That probably wasn't good. Atem didn't stay to watch, letting Seto and Ryou deal with the demons. "Come on!" he snarled, pulling Bakura away from Ryou. "We need to stop the source." The avatar might not be mortal enough to die anymore, but that wouldn't stop Bakura's power. With the last of his will and strength he pulled them into the room beyond.

It might have been a janitor's closet once – vague shapes that might have been cleaning tools littered the walls and floors. The icon was clear though, pulsing with evil life on a makeshift altar. No knives.. that was what must have happened, some fool made an icon to Apep with nothing to pin his power... He lurched forward and grabbed the half human thing kneeling before it. The power was enough to sicken him and he felt it crawling up his arm when he grabbed the Avatar. With a cry of utter revulsion he let it go, gagging, as Bakura moved beside him. The priest of Anubis pulled a knife and stabbed the Avatar in the back, holding the blade in place even as the creature screamed with a sound that was more than human.

Atem didn't stop to watch – he might have only moments before the Avatar threw off the priest. He grabbed the icon, nearly screaming himself, and cast it to the floor. "Horus and Ra abjure you." he snarled, calling on the Goddess' power. "I am Ma'at's Defender, and spit upon you, foul and accursed. I defile you with my left foot." He stomped on the icon, and heard it scream in time with the Avatar behind him. Tendrils of chaos magic lashed him, drawing blood as he focused the goddess' power. Normally the full rites would take all day, but he had walked among the stars with the blessed dead. He could do this. His hand closed over a golden lance and he used it to stab the icon into the ground. "With Set's lance do I strike you, and pin your power. You have no power over this earth."

The snake writhed, suddenly alive and with black eyes, fangs dripping poison as he darted his head around and bit Atem in the leg. The Pharaoh screamed in his turn, feeling the icy poison lance up through his body. He dropped to one knee, holding himself on the golden lance as he held out his other hand and a golden knife appeared. "I... strike in Ma'at's name... She gives Me power to... to... strike off... your head..." he panted.

A tanned hand wrapped around his, steadying his shaking hand and together he and Bakura struck off the serpent's head. It stopped writhing, vomiting black blood and poison.

"What's the last step?" Bakura demanded. "Come on, you can't die on me yet."

"Fire..." Atem forced the numb blackness from his mind, bringing his hands together. Golden flame boiled between his fingers. "With Ma'at's sacred flame I do destroy your power!" He cast the fire at the icon and it roared, golden and purifying. He felt it burn the poison from his body and the spell from his mind, and then darkness took him and he knew nothing more.

Epilogue

"Mou hitori no boku?" A soft, familiar voice, attached to a soft, familiar mental caress. Warm hands laved a cool cloth over his forehead. "Can you hear me?"

Atem realized he could understand the Japanese, and for a long moment he thought that it had all been a horrible nightmare. Then the various aches, pains and bites as well as the soul deep burn of way too much holy magic for a yami registered. :I'm awake, bright one. Gods I hurt.: He opened his eyes, suddenly realizing he'd left his hikari up outside the museum to fight, and sat up. His head throbbed, threatening to make him black out again, but he forced it back. "Aibou... are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm okay." Yuugi's bright amethyst eyes had dark rings under them, but he was clearly himself again. He still wore his costume coat but the helmet and wig were gone. "Careful, you took more damage than I did. Lay back."

"What happened? I don't remember anything after completing the ritual." He lay back at his hikari's urging, though he wanted to cuddle his light close and make sure that Yuugi really was okay.

"Well, the spell's gone. There was a kind of explosion, though nothing was really damaged, and then the stuff we were fighting was just gone; we all realized what was going on about then, so I guess that's when the spell was broken. Bakura-kun carried Ryou-kun out of the museum and Seto-kun did the same for you. Then we made ourselves scarce before the police could ask any uncomfortable questions."

"Is everyone all right?" he asked, closing his eyes again and allowing Yuugi to lay the cloth on his eyes and temples again. He had a godsawful headache.

"Just minor cuts, bruises and abrasions." Yuugi assured him. "Bakura-kun looked like he'd been through a war, but Seto-kun looked more angry than anything."

"Tch... he's been angry all night."

"Yep." Yuugi agreed, and then Atem felt the warm touch of his light's lips on his own. :Don't worry about it for now, yami mine. You're safe and home.:

Atem sighed into the kiss; he would have to get up soon, to help with the aftermath and clean up. But for now he relaxed, letting the warmth and light of Yuugi's love soothe him back into healing sleep.


End file.
